"I got so many flowers my apartment looked like a funeral parlor," Annie said with a laugh.

The big celebration that had been in the planning stages at Casa Pacifica Senior Apartments, where Annie has lived since 1978, was changed to a quieter family affair at Annie's granddaughter's home in Daly City. "There were 30 people there and some came all the way from Los Angeles and Arizona. I had a good time."

Annie was born in Wareham, Massachusetts, just west of Cape Cod and east of New Bedford, and not far, she noted, from where the pilgrims landed at Plymouth.

"My parents were from Cape Verde, and there is a lot of history with Cape Verdeans in New England." The Cape Verde Islands, off of the west coast of Africa, were colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century. Subsequently, Cape Verde became a trading center for African slaves. With the decline of the slave trade in the 19th century, the first Cape Verdeans immigrants arrived aboard New England whaling ships. Later they came to work in the cranberry bogs for the cranberry industry in Southeastern Massachusetts. Some 500,000 people of Cape Verdean ancestry live in the States, primarily in New England.

Advertisement

"My father was 15 years old when he got on a ship to come to this country," Annie said. "He was the youngest, and most of his siblings had settled in New Bedford. He worked as a cabin boy on the ship, but the trouble was, he wasn't allowed to step foot into this country until he was 21. He was on that ship for six years." Her father, Charlie Rose, who played violin and guitar, learned how to use a knife and gun while aboard, and learned how to measure and build, but he never learned English.

Annie's mother, Mary Pina, moved to Wareham with her parents when she was 6. She met Charlie Rose in 1907, shortly after his arrival. She was 14, he was 21. They married. Five years later, their only child Annie was born.

"When my mother was 10 years old, her father left home and moved to California," Annie said. "My grandmother only spoke Portuguese, which I speak, but wanted the best for my mother. So she boarded my mother with another family who taught her English, and she learned to read and write. She could also sew and cook and everybody loved her." Annie's parents worked in the cranberry bogs. While it was seasonal work, Annie's mom worked all year with cranberries. Annie's father worked off season at the fabric factory, or for the undertaker parlor in town. They bought a little house where Annie was born. Annie's grandmother lived across the street.

"I was a tomboy," Annie laughed. "I could climb any tree, but a lot of the Cape Verdeans were very strict about girls. But my father and mother, they loved me and they just let me be. I had all these stuffed bears and dolls, but I didn't play with them. I played with all the boys, Cowboys and Indians. I had a sled for the snow, and I could out sled anyone." Annie would also work in the cranberry bogs, and on school vacations she and her mom and other mothers and their children would stay in the home of the strawberry plantation owner and pick strawberries.

"My grandmother was killed by lightning in July of 1921. I was 9 years old. We didn't know what earthquakes were in Massachusetts, but we knew thunderstorms. She didn't die immediately. But the doctor couldn't come because the storm was too bad, and we didn't know how to resuscitate her." Annie's grandmother had all kinds of animals on her farm, including a rooster whom she had once saved. All of the animals loved Annie's grandmother.

"When my grandmother died, we had all kinds of people over to our house," Annie said. "All of a sudden that rooster and his friend, a rabbit, came into the house to pay their respects. They were standing right under my grandmother's casket, we couldn't believe it." Some difficulties passed between Annie's parents, and her mom packed their things and she and Annie headed out by train to Sacramento, near where Annie's maternal grandfather had moved.

"That was a long train ride," the centenarian recalled. "I just turned 13 when we arrived in California. We stayed with friends of my grandfather. They ran a boardinghouse in Sacramento. For my mom, the move was like being reunited with all her Cape Verde relatives and friends because it seemed like everyone had left their husbands or wives and moved to Sacramento.

"The last school I attended was in St. Helena," Annie continued. " I only went to seventh grade but I can read, I can write, and I have spent a lot of time at libraries." Annie, who never learned how to drive, said if she were to tell all her stories, this interview would take months. So here are some snippets. The first president she voted for was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She just voted for Obama. Before she moved to California, she had a chance to go to a lot of theater and vaudeville in Boston, all of which she loved. She also wanted to say that the first time she met her future husband, Roman Aranjo, was in Massachusetts, working in the cranberry bogs. He was a kid, like her. The next time she saw him was not long after the move to California. They were both in their early teens.

"Roman didn't dance, he was quiet and I thought he was the ugliest guy I had ever seen, because he had light eyes, and his hair had a red tinge and he had bad acne. I never in a million years thought I would marry him." Roman however, turned into a handsome fellow and the two married in 1934 at Saint Elizabeth's Catholic Church in Sacramento. The previous year, Roman had become a San Francisco longshoreman. The couple would make San Francisco their home.

"I remember the longshoremen strike of 1934," Annie said. "Two men were shot and another man was wounded. There was a big funeral procession, and it seems like everyone in San Francisco went." Roman and Annie had a beautiful marriage which lasted 34 years until Roman's death at age 57 in 1968. They had two daughters.

"My daughters are Gerry and Jackie," Annie said, "I have three granddaughters, one grandson, and one great grandson, Isaiah, who is 6 feet 8 inches tall." Annie and Roman used to come to Pacifica in the 30s, on the weekends with friends, when the only thing there, according to Annie, was the Gust's family restaurant in Rockaway.

"I'm not even sure if it was called Nick's back then," Annie said. "You could get hamburgers and marshmallows, and the weather was always freezing. The rest of Pacifica was a lot of grass and not much in the way of roads." The couple raised their daughters in the Bayview District of San Francisco, and after her husband died, Annie went along with her daughter Gerry, who was house hunting for her family and looking in both Pacifica and Daly City.

"I hadn't been to Pacifica in 30 years at least," Annie said. "I couldn't believe it. It was beautiful and all built up." When a friend told Annie about Casa Pacifica, she went for a look and the rest is history.

"Christopher Asay was the first manager of the complex when I moved in and he was such a wonderful man," Annie said. "In fact, everybody here has always been so nice. (Tribune Sports Editor) Horace Hinshaw's parents lived here and we were such good friends. I used to bake them a beautiful fruit cake every Christmas. I remember when Horace's mother turned 80, he threw the biggest party and Horace and I used to dance up a storm." Annie, who has been a long-time parishioner of the Parish of Saint Peter, said she has been in the Pacifica Tribune a few times. Once on Aug. 25, 1979, she won first prize for her costume in the Frontier Day celebration. She also made the paper when she won best costume for the Founders' Parade, and she was in the paper when she went straight to the mayor's office to discuss her unhappiness over the removal of Safeway in the back of the valley.

"My life is quieter now," Annie said. "I remember after my husband died, I went back to Wareham and stayed with relatives for four years, and everybody thought I was a glamour gal. I never had a boyfriend after my husband. I didn't want one. But I did get chased a few times.

"At 100, the biggest lessons in life I have to offer, are the same lessons I was raised with. Always give love, be kind and share."